Guild Wars 2: The One Thread

So, I know a lot of people wanted to just make one official GW2 thread because a lot have been popping up, so I am going to put most of the information we know about the game here for discussion.

Just to clarify: Yes, you can jump in Guild Wars 2. Yes, it is an open and persistent world. Yes, there is no monthly fee.

Originally Posted by Snowy

I worked on this off and on today, but looks like someone beat me to posting one. Since it would be a lot more hassle to try and restructure this back to a normal post, I'll just leave it in this format.

Q: Will there a Subscription fee:A: No, Guild Wars 2 is Buy to Play without a subscription. There will be an online store and nothing in the online store gives an in game advantage.

Q: Will Guild Wars 2 have a persistent world?A: Yes, Guild Wars 2 will have a persistent world.

Q: What is the team size limit?A: You can have a total of 5 players on a team.

Q: How many skills can I put on my bar and how do they work?A: You can have a total of 10 skills on your bar at one time with access to 15 skills, 25 skills for an Elementalist. The first five skills are chosen by your weapon(s) and you can swap to another weapon set in combat for another skills set. The Elementalist only has access to one weapon set during combat, however they have access to all four elements. The last 5 skills are chosen directly by you. The 6th skills slot is the dedicated healing skill slot and the 10th skill slot is for your elite skill. Slots 7-9 are for utility skills. Some Utility Skills and some weapon sets for a class/profession have Chain Skills.

Q: What are Chain Skills?A: Chain skills take up one skill slot but change based upon use. When the first skills is used successfully, then it changed to the next skill in the chain. An example would a Necromancer that uses a skill to summon Bone Minions to fight foes. The Bone Minion skill then changes to the skill Putrid Explosion to allow the Necromancer to explode the minions.

Q: What are Traits?A: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Trait
A trait is an ability that can be equipped by a player to provide passive ongoing effects. Traits can be used to boost a character's attributes, reduce the effects of conditions, improve the effects of skills, and more. Traits are determined by profession as well as the weapon held. There are around 100 traits per profession.
Each trait has a type: major, indicated by an eight-pointed star icon, or minor, indicated by a hexagonal icon. A trait also belongs to a trait line, a profession based grouping of traits, to which it belongs. Each profession has several trait lines. There are two types of trait line: general trait lines and weapon trait lines. General traits boost attributes or particular skill types, while weapon traits boost or give additional abilities to weapon skills.

Q: What are Environmental Weapons:A: Environmental Weapons are temporary weapons/items found in the game world. They replace the first 5 skills on your skill bar until the item is used or you choose to drop the item. A Thief can temporarily steal an item to use as weapon, with the effect changing based on the creature the Thief stole from. Elementalist have Utility skills for creating Environmental Weapons that other players can use. Rangers have an Untility skill for finding nearby Environmental Weapons that he/she can use. An example of an Environmental Weapon found without the assistance of class/profession abilities would be Mortars, like those used during the Shatterer event.

Q: What are Skill Interactions?A: Skill interactions are when skills interact with your or others attacks or skills. An example of this would be an Elementalist laying down a wall of fire and a Ranger shoots threw it. The Ranger's arrow is now a flaming arrow that deals additional damage. Guardians place Symbols on the ground for different effects, one such Symbol causes all attacks that pass through it to heal nearby allies when the attacks hit their target.

Q: What are Racial Skills?A: Racial skills are unique special abilities available to each of the playable races. They are all projected to be weaker than their counterparts from classes/professions that are specialized in similar skills. Each race has around 10 to 12 racial skills.

Q: What is the "Downed State"?A: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Downed
The Downed State is the mode a character enters when their health reaches zero. In this state, a character is unable to move but has access to four downed skills for a chance to kill an enemy and rally. These downed skills are less powerful than other skills and include a skill to call out for assistance. While downed, a character's health bar is replaced by a consciousness meter which indicates the time remaining in the downed state. If the player is not rallied or revived before this meter runs out, or if they continue to be attacked, they will enter a defeated state. Necromancers get a special Downed State called Death Shroud. ( http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Death_Shroud )

Q: How does Reviving/Resurrecting work in GW2?A: Every class/profession can resurrect. You can resurrect a player in the Downed State as well as players that have died. You can even resurrect dead NPCs. If a player has been downed several times it will take longer to revive each time. Players can use a Waypoint resurrect themselves, there is no corpse running.

Q: What is a Waypoint?A: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Waypoint
As the world is explored, waypoints are unlocked on a player's map. The map can be used to travel instantly to any waypoint for a small fee. The fee depends on the character's distance from the destination; for example, travel within a city is free, but as the distance increases so does the fee. A normal zone typically has between 10 and 20 Waypoints. The waypoints also act as resurrection shrines when a defeated player uses them. Resurrection has the same fees as normal map travel.

Q: Is there stealth in Guild Wars 2 and if so, how does it work?A: Yes, a Thief has several skills to allow them to stealth. Stealth has time limit so the Thief can't remain stealth forever and stealth fully breaks if the Thief uses a skill other than the "steal" skill. Also, a stealth Thief can be spotted if you pay attention to the environment, look for moving grass or bushes or water. If a stealth Thief takes damage, it will temporary make them visible and they will automatically re-stealth if they go a few seconds without taking damage. Since targeting is not required to use any of the skills in Guild Wars 2, it won't be hard to deal with a stealth Thief should you notice one.

There are no Quests in GW2 aside from those in the your character's Personal Story. Events take the place of quests in GW2 and anyone in the area can participate in them. You not have to be on a team to help out and you still get credit as there is no kill stealing or lost Experience for helping others.

Most events are Event Chains. When an event is completed or failed, the next stage of the event then takes place.
Example: Pirates attack a town. If players stop the attack then the next stage of the event chain strike back at the prirates, heading to their base and then eventually taking out their boss. If Players failed to stop the initial attack, then the pirates would move further inward, attacking other towns and would have to be pushed back, which eventually leads to the initially attacked town and trying to retake it.

Dynamic Events scale with the more players participating. Most events scale for up to 10 players participating. Special larger group events, such as the Shatterer fight, scale for up to 100 players and require a minimum number of players to be able to complete it. Players who are not actively participating will not be counted by the game, so the events won't take those players into account when it comes to scaling.

The more you participate, the higher your score and the higher your score, the larger the reward. Reviving/Resurrecting fallen players also counts for participation. You can stop participating in an event at anytime to go do something else and when it ends, you are still rewarded for your participation. When an event is finished, you earn Experience, Gold, and Karma.

Karma:http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Karma
Karma is a non-tradable reward received by participating in events and helping others with their personal storyline. It is primarily used to develop a character's personality. Karma can also be used to buy items from certain NPCs. Almost everything which is attainable by using karma is also purchasable using coin.

Gear, Dungeons, Crafting, & More:

Leveling: The level cap in Guild Wars 2 is level 80. Each level takes the same amount of time to attain so level progression will be more regular than other MMOs; however, reaching maximum level is not considered to be the end of the game. In the areas where leveling is possible, a sidekick system will be used to allow players to play with friends of different levels. Some PvP modes standardize all character levels to ensure an even playing field. The sidekick system kicks down your level while you are in a low level area and if you are on a team with a high level player in a high level area, then your level is temporarily raised to match theirs.

Gear: There will be several ways to obtain gear in Guild Wars 2. You can obtain gear from the Personal Story, Dynamic Events, Dungeons, Crafting, and PvP. Each method of obtaining gear provides equal quality gear, the gear just has a different design/look based on the method obtained.

At level 80, gear quickly and easily reaches a power plateau to ensure everyone is on equal footing so that a player's Skill is more important than their gear.

The personal story is the storyline or main plot of Guild Wars 2 which along with events makes up much of PvE gameplay. The personal story is independent from random world events and is always available to follow through the game world and the events which occur there. The personal story is told through character specific instances and is personalized by decisions made before and during gameplay. There are potentially thousands of variations in the stories which can be experienced.

The story is played from one character's perspective for that character's story. Other players can help with someone else's story but are not able to make choices which affect the outcome.

To get access to Dungeons, players must first encounter them in their Personal Story. This will then unlock access to the dungeon and are found about every 10 levels with additional ones at endgame. Dungeons are option 5-man with a fixed difficulty, this means they do not scale based on the number of players.
Each dungeon has unique light, medium and heavy armors and weapons modeled after the theme of the dungeon as its rewards. These are no more powerful than items which can be gained doing other activities in game. Completing a dungeon awards a token. A story mode token can be traded for a weapon from the dungeon set, while an explorer mode token can be traded for armor from the dungeon set.

Gear created by crafting will be equivalent to gear obtained by other means for that level. ArenaNet has stated that by creating gear as you level, it will actually be of use and by doing so it will level your crafting to the next tier of usable gear before you need it. This way you don't have to create a bunch of useless items just to get to gear that you can make use of. Items can be made at crafting stations present in cities and major outposts.

A character can have two crafting disciplines active at a time, but can change their specializations at any time by visiting a master craftsman and paying a fee. All skill points and recipes learned in a discipline are saved when switching. The more points already invested in a discipline however, the more it will cost for a player to switch to that discipline. The intent of this system is to encourage trading while allowing every player to feasibly craft items that they want.

There are no gathering professions, so all players can gather any material or node. Nodes are player based so there is no competing for nodes. When you have gathered a node, it disappears for you and you alone until it respawns.

There are eight crafting disciplines, each having different areas of specialization:

Weaponsmiths craft melee weapons, such as swords, axes and hammers.

Huntsmen craft ranged weapons like bows and pistols, as well as torches and warhorns.

Artificers craft magical weapons such as staves and scepters.

Armorsmiths craft heavy armor pieces.

Leatherworkers craft medium armor pieces.

Tailors craft light armor pieces.

Jewelcrafters craft jewelry, such as rings and necklaces.

Cooks can prepare food which characters can eat for temporary combat buff

Recipes tell players what materials are necessary to craft an item. Some recipes are learned as a player's level in a crafting discipline rises, while others are available exclusively from trainers or as loot. However, most recipes must be discovered through experimenting with various combinations of materials. When a new item is created, its recipe is learned for the character, allowing this character to access it at any time. Recipes for items are universal across the player base. This means that you can look up a recipe online to be able to make those items. It is currently needs confirmation on whether loot recipes will require the recipe to learn or if a player just needs to know what materials are required.

PvP:

PvP in Guild Wars contains two types. World versus World PvP and Structured PvP. You can loot players in PvP for items, the items are not taken from the looted player inventory.

Tournament play will be similar to Guild Battles from the original Guild Wars, where pre-organized teams of five fight on level playing field through bracketed tournament play. Pick-up play allows individuals or groups to join a game based on map, available space, and other settings. It will have variable team sizes allowing larger teams than tournament play and will be 'hot-joinable'.

A character used to enter structured PvP will retain race and profession. The character will be given a fixed maximum level, and all skills and items will be available without the need to unlock them first. Player statistics will be tracked and used to generate a player ranking.

--- World versus World PvP: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World_PvP
World versus World (also known as WvW, World PvP, and Casual PvP) is an objectives based Player versus Player game mode based in a large scale open world which allows hundreds of players at all levels to drop-in and drop-out at any time. Every week three different worlds are matched up on a random map to compete for rewards for their world.

World PvP is intended as a casual form of PvP, designed to be a more relaxed bridging point between PvE and the tactics and pressure of structured PvP. It is hoped that players of any level or PvP experience can participate and be useful.

More FAQ

General

How much will GW2 cost?
There is no official pricing yet, but it will most likely cost $50-60 USD.Will GW2 have a monthly fee?
No, the game will be B2P (buy to play), which means you only pay for the game itself and future expansions.Will there be micro transactions?
Yes, there will be a store where you can buy items, but ArenaNet has stated the items will be purely cosmetic and are not necessary to play the game.Is GW2 a true MMO?
Yes, GW2 will be open world and persistent like other MMOs.

Release:

I saw a release date for the game at GameStop, Amazon, Steam, etc. It this the real release date?
No, the game does not have an official release date yet. ArenaNet will announce the official release date.When will GW2 be released?
Read above.When will there be a Beta?
Based off the official FAQ, we should see a closed beta in 2011 and possibly an open beta in 2011 as well.How do I get into the Beta?
No one but ArenaNet knows yet. It will mostly be done the same way as other games, which have you sign up and are randomly select players.Is the development on track?
No one but ArenaNet really knows, but they stated the game should be out by 2011 a while back, and that seems like a possibility, so I think the development is on track.

Character:

How will character names work in GW2?
You will be able to have a one or two word name with a maximum length of 19 characters (counting spaces).Will professions be restricted by race?
No, all races can play any profession.Can I import my GW1 character to GW2?
No, but you will be able to reserve character names and transfer some achievements to GW2 through the Hall of Monuments.What will character creation be like?
We have yet to see a demo on this, but ArenaNet has said they have an advanced character creation system which will allow you to custom your characters face, height, and much more.Will there be achievements?
Yes there will be achievements in GW2. Check this link for more information http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Achievement

Combat:How does weapon swapping work?
You are able to have two weapons sets while in combat to swap. So, you could dual wield axes for weapon set 1 and have a great sword for weapon set 2 and switching between those would be instant, but there is a short delay before you can swap again. When you switch weapons, the first 5 skills on your bar will change depending on what weapon you are using. Also, when you are out of combat you can switch to any weapon you want and switch what weapon sets you have.

Will there be raids?
ArenaNet said there will not be dungeons that hold more than 5 player teams, but there will be world boss events which scale up to any amount of players, which could take place of the "raids" people enjoy.

Are there auto attacks?
There are no auto white attacks like WoW or Rift, but you can select a skill to be an auto attack. You only do damage if you use a skill and there are no white attacks that go off after you use a skill.

How does targeting work?
Targeting works similar to the way it does in WoW for enemies. However, there is no ally targeting. If you need to revive an ally you must go up to them to do so, if you want to heal an ally you have to use a ground effect heal or an aoe heal.

The more and more I look at videos of this game the more I want to try it. I didn't like the first Guild Wars that much but this looks like it'll blow pretty much every MMO out of the water. Soooo excited. Definitely loving the Charr and the Norn. Probably going to try everything though, it all looks cool. WTB open beta. =(

I was just watching those PAX East videos all the way through (kinda just skimmed them when I stuck them up) and I just learned something completely awesome that I haven't heard mentioned by anyone before.

Basically, someone asked a question about whether they would have an auction house in the game since GW1 didn't, and they described their version which they call a Marketplace, where not only can you buy and sell items the way you can in auction houses in other games, but you can also post bids where you state what you want and how much you're willing to pay for it and people who are wanting to sell things can check to see if anyone is offering enough money for what they're selling. Saves spamming trade chat!

It's an AH type of system. The part that is a bit different is that you can post on there an item that you want, and if there is a seller with that item they can then sell it to you through that system. There won't be the player stores like in Aion that I'm aware of (I certainly hope not anyway).

You post bids in an AH type of thing, or is it like Aion's individual stores but reversed?

They didn't go into it in alot of detail, but from what they did say it sounds like the AH is pretty much like what you'd find in WoW, but with the added feature of being able to post what items you're looking for, what quantity and how much you're willing to pay, and then you can just log off, or go do something else until someone comes along, sees what you're offering and then agrees to sell you the items they have at the price stated. Sort of like what you see people spamming in trade chat ("WTB 4 Thick hide, paying 20g"), but automated.

I would imagine you'd have to deposit your money into the AH when making such a bid, so the person that agrees to sell to you can get their money at the same time the item is sent to you, that way it prevents time wasters or scamming. But that's just my theory since they haven't specified the details yet.

If I may offer some suggestions as to what to add to the OP: the manifesto video, the "giving Tyria a voice" video, the trailers we've gotten so far, links to the individual class pages (they have all the info + skill videos, which are awesome) and some quality gameplay videos, maybe? Quality in the sense that they both look good and the people playing aren't terrible

I also second boss fight videos (Shatterer!) and maybe a link to the official gw2 wiki? The GW wiki people are pretty much always on the ball; if you can't find the info you want on the wiki, it's because nobody knows yet.

Edit: also, could we have "NOT DEVELOPED BY NCSOFT" somewhere prominent in big red letters?

If I may offer some suggestions as to what to add to the OP: the manifesto video, the "giving Tyria a voice" video, the trailers we've gotten so far, links to the individual class pages (they have all the info + skill videos, which are awesome) and some quality gameplay videos, maybe? Quality in the sense that they both look good and the people playing aren't terrible

I also second boss fight videos (Shatterer!) and maybe a link to the official gw2 wiki? The GW wiki people are pretty much always on the ball; if you can't find the info you want on the wiki, it's because nobody knows yet

Agreed. Also, it might be worth linking to http://www.guildwars2guru.com/ as it's always up to date with GW2 info and has an active forum that the Arenanet staff actually post in.

---------- Post added 2011-04-24 at 08:41 PM ----------

Originally Posted by midwintersong

Edit: also, could we have "NOT DEVELOPED BY NCSOFT" somewhere prominent in big red letters?

lol Maybe it's best not to mention the "N Word" at all until someone brings it up!

---------- Post added 2011-04-24 at 10:54 PM ----------

Might be worth grabbing some of the info and links from the following thread which someone recently started but got closed.